Today we paid a visit to an existing permission but to a field that we'd never set foot in. The field was drilled with OSR and 42-acres in size.

Rob and I used the 13" coils in V4 and Robin the 11" coil in V3.2 using GMP standard.We travelled down the entire western edge of the field (half-a-mile) with only a few bits in the first half, mainly lead and copper fragments.It was only in the second half of the field were it started to get a little busier.Lots of small ferrous signals were being received so it looked as though we may be onto a settlement of some kind.The first coin was a silvered Roman numus and it wasn't long before a few other roman coins started to emerge. There were some sherds of Roman grey ware and even a couple of Medieval pottery sherds on the field surface. There was even a fragment of Bronze Age pottery for good measure.We were certain that a settlement may exist due to the amount of lead and ferrous signals as well as the mineralisation of the soil.Because the field is over 42-acres in size we decided to use our proven "Zebra" search pattern to quickly locate the settlement area.We have used this system several times with great success and once again it helped locate the area of the settlement in this field.We resumed our normal search pattern over the highlighted zone and enjoyed the following results:

Twenty-six Roman coins including two nice denarii, a Spanish (Real) silver Cob, two Roman fibulae, a nice Medieval strapend, three lead animals, a Civil War musket ball, a bespoke lead seal, lots of buttons and lead bullets were recovered!

We decided to call it a day and kick off the wellies.Whilst doing so, I got a WhattsApp message from the landowner. He'd sent a picture of a lovely Roman fibula that a local detectorist had found. I said we'd come over and have a look at it if he was home. This was the first time that I'd met the landowner in the four years that I'd known him, although we only visit infrequently.​He was extremely surprised that we'd found anything at all as "millions" had already searched that field. Obviously, the field had been saturated with detectorists over the years hence his remarks and amazement at the amount we'd found. He added that that the previous detectorists must not have been that good? We however think that they'd done a good job over those years but it just goes to show that a structured approach will pay dividends. It will be interesting to see if we find much after the next plough session.

We'll be writing an article that may shed some light on the perception of what lies beneath your feet and if it is detectable.